Phases
by PrincessRedfern
Summary: Everyone deals with grief differently. As parents, the loss of their son bound them and they experienced their grief as a collective, in five distinct phases; Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. ONESHOT


**Phases**

**A/N: HI GUYS, IT'S ME, PRINCESSREDFERN. I'M BACK.**

**I KNOW I'VE BEEN ABSENT FOR A WHILE (I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER THE LAST TIME I POSTED). I'VE HAD A PRETTY BUSY YEAR, FINISHING HIGH SCHOOL AND WHAT NOT (WHICH I DID JUST UNDER A MONTH AGO). ANYWAY AFTER FINISHING SCHOOL AND REALISING I HAVE NO WAY TO SPEND ALL MY FREE TIME UNTIL NEXT YEAR, I LET MYSELF GET REHOOKED ON **_**CHARMED**_**. I ONLY JUST FINISHED SEASON SIX (MY FAVOURITE SEASON BECAUSE, HELLO, CHRIS IS **_**THE**_** BEST CHARACTER ON THE SHOW! HE'S AMAZING. I'M IN LOVE.) TODAY AND I GOT SOME IDEAS FOR A BUNCH OF CHRIS RELATED **_**CHARMED**_** FANFICS AND FELT PARTICULARLY INSPIRED (PERHAPS MY MUSE DECIDED TO RETURN TO ME NOW THAT I'M NOT FOCUSED ON SCHOOL). SO HERE I AM.**

**THIS ONE IS JUST A ONE SHOT, DEALING WITH THE EMOTIONS OF PIPER AND LEO FOLLOWING FUTURE CHRIS'S DEATH THROUGH THE FIVE PHASES OF GRIEF. I PLAYED AROUND WITH HAVING THIS AS A MULTI (5) CHAPTERED FIC, BUT IT WAS REALLY MUCH TOO SHORT TO DO SO, SO ONE SHOT IT IS.**

**THIS IS MY FIRST TIME WRITING IN THE **_**CHARMED **_**UNIVERSE, SO ANY CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ON HOW TO ADAPT MY WRITING TO SUIT THE STYLE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. I DON'T KNOW HOW OOC THESE CHARACTERS ARE EXACTLY. I HOPE IT'S NOT TOO BAD.**

**Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own anything remotely related to **_**Charmed**_** or Chris Halliwell **

Phase One: DENIAL

At first they pretended it didn't happen. Leo's denial had only lasted minutes before his anger had overtaken him completely. Of course, he regressed back to denial the moment the doctor had placed his newborn son, baby Christopher, in his arms. In that moment, looking at that angelic newborn, that tiny piece of perfection that he and Piper had created, he couldn't bring himself to think about what he had witnessed earlier in the day. So he didn't. Instead, he ignored the bittersweet ache in his heart, ignored the fact that although he had gained a son, he had also lost one.

The moment baby Chris had been placed in his arms, Leo had resolved not to tell Piper yet. He knew she would have questions, he just hoped that her exhaustion from childbirth and almost dying and her joy over Chris's birth would overwhelm her curiosity and concern for future Chris's well being and future. He didn't want to spoil his son's birth with future Chris's fate. It was what future Chris would have wanted.

So, as he walked into the hospital room, cradling baby Chris close to his chest, his eyes locked on Piper's. Piper knew immediately that something was wrong, just by the look on Leo's face. She could see Wyatt, resting on Phoebe's hip, protected by his aunt's arms. And then she saw Paige's face; her small, sad smile and tearful eyes. Call it mother's intuition, call it a sisterly bond, but instinctively Piper knew that the threat to Wyatt had been eliminated and her son was finally safe from evil.

Which meant the sadness was for Chris. Something had happened to future Chris. Piper's heart constricted momentarily at the thought of something happening to her baby boy (who admittedly hadn't been a baby for 20 years). But then she looked at actually-a-baby Chris, resting safely in Leo's arms and all thoughts of future Chris were shoved from her mind. She was being ridiculous. Of course Chris was okay (she ignored that tiny voice in the back of her mind, which sounded suspiciously like Prue, that sang _"Denial!"_). She could see him now, her perfectly healthy baby boy. And even though she knew it was irrational to think that just because baby Chris was fine that future Chris was fine, she couldn't bring herself to ruin this moment.

The doors of the hospital room closed as Leo leant down so Piper could see Chris better. Still feeling weak, Piper slowly reached up a hand to stroke baby Chris's face. He was awake, looking up at her with those newborn blue eyes, eyes that she knew would eventually go green. His skin was so soft, so smooth.

"He's perfect," she whispered tiredly, looking up at Leo tearfully, a smile gracing her face.

"He is," Leo agreed before promising, "And he's going to be loved Piper. He's never going to be that lonely boy from the future. He's going to be loved and happy and safe and good... He's never going to know that kind of evil. Not this time."

"I know he won't," Piper said simply, her voice soft and tired, "Can I hold him?"

She pushed herself up weakly, leaning against her pillows so she was sitting slightly upright and held her tired arms out expectantly. Leo looked down at Chris for a moment, reluctant to give his baby boy up. He knew it was irrational and foolish. But he wanted to hold Chris in his arms forever and never let him go, as if somehow doing so could prevent this Chris from being killed in 22 years. He knew in his head that Piper could protect Chris just as well as he could, probably better, but, as hard as he tried, images of Chris's death kept echoing in his mind.

No. Chris wasn't dead. He was here, in his arms, safe and sound. He continued repeating these words in his head. Chris was safe, he was alive. Everything was okay.

Slowly, Leo lowered baby Chris into Piper's open arms. Piper held him tightly in her arms, ignoring the exhaustion she felt. It felt so right to hold Chris in her arms. She was instantly taken back to all the times she had hugged future Chris and how right it had felt. With Wyatt, she hadn't bonded with him initially; it had only been when she had lost her sight that her maternal instincts had really kicked in. But with Chris, maybe it was because she had spent months bonding with future him or maybe it was because he was her second child, but Piper felt like his mother right away. She felt as though she knew this baby, in a way that she hadn't known Wyatt at first. It was strange and a small part of her felt guilty, but another part of her took it as the universe's way of making up for Chris' poor childhood in the dark future or his future inferiority complex with Wyatt. That was a much nicer way of looking at it.

"Can you bring Wyatt in, Leo?" Piper asked, "I want him to be here with us."

Leo hesitated, irrationally not wanting to leave Chris, even for a moment. But he knew that Wyatt was as much a part of their family as anyone and needed to be present for this family bonding moment.

"Okay," he whispered, bending down to kiss Piper and Chris's foreheads, "I'll be back."  
Piper watched him walk outside the hospital room, closing the doors behind him. She redirected her attention to Chris.

"Hi buddy," she whispered, "I'm your Mommy. And I love you so much. I'm not going to let anything happen to you peanut. I'm not ever going to leave you. I'm going to be there to watch you grow into the amazing man I know you'll become. I promise you that, Christopher."

It felt strange to use his full name. Christopher. Chris. Her baby boy. Christopher Perry Halliwell. She still didn't know why she would have picked Perry for Chris's middle name (other than the obvious 'P' theory) and Chris had never told her. In fact, she wasn't even sure that had been his middle name in the future; she was just going on a hunch that the surname he had selected for his alias in their time was his middle name.

"Christopher Perry Halliwell," she whispered to herself, trying out the name, "Chris Perry Halliwell."

It was perfect; a name she could imagine yelling when he undoubtedly misbehaved, a name she could imagine using when disciplining her son or lecturing him. And it suited him. At least she knew he liked it.

Piper shook that thought away. No. She wasn't going to think about _him_, worry about him yet. Not today. She couldn't. Future Chris was fine. He had to be.

The doors swung open and Leo walked in, Wyatt resting on his hip.

"Hi buddy," Piper smiled tiredly at her firstborn, "Come meet your baby brother."

Leo sat down on a chair beside Piper's bed, Wyatt sitting on his lap.

"Wyatt," he said softly, "This is your brother, Chris."

Wyatt looked at the little baby in his mother's arms curiously and Piper thanked her lucky stars that he was still too young to make the connection between baby Chris, his younger brother, and future Chris, his protector, sometimes-babysitter and playmate all rolled into one. That would have been much too difficult (and quite possibly traumatic) to even attempt to explain.

"Chris loves you so much Wyatt," Piper whispered, "And I know you're going to love him too."

Wyatt reached out to his new baby brother, his little hand stopping short of the blue bundle in Piper's arms. Leo shuffled closer to the bed, allowing Wyatt to place his hand on blanket-clad Chris. He wrapped one arm around Wyatt's waist, holding him securely, placing his other hand on top of Wyatt's hand, touching Chris. The little family sat together in silence, celebrating together the newest addition to their family; both Piper and Leo ignoring the ache of loss that both of them felt.

Phase Two: ANGER

It all came flooding back the day Piper and Chris got out of the hospital. Leo watched as Piper walked slowly into the nursery, still weak from her surgery. He hadn't been able to follow her inside. Instead he had been drawn to what had once been their bedroom and what was now her bedroom and the scene of the crime; the place where _it_ had happened. He hadn't been in there since then... Since Chris had... Since Chris had died.  
Leo stepped inside the room, seeing Chris lying on the bed; deadly pale and still, the bloody unhealable chest wound, breathing heavily and sweating profusely as he slowly slipped away to an unpreventable death. He remembered how helpless he'd felt, how his determination to heal Chris had slipped away until nothing but sadness and frustration at his own uselessness was left. Anger washed over him as he remembered how hard he'd tried to heal Chris and how nothing he'd tried had worked.

Damn Gideon! Damn him to hell! There weren't words to describe the hatred Leo possessed for the dead "_For the greater good_" Elder. How dare he do this?! How dare he attack Leo's sons?! How dare he try to kill Wyatt and kill Chris in the process?! Everything, all the pain he felt, Piper and her sister's pain, the future Chris had come from and the pain it had caused him and everything they had been through to save Wyatt was because of Gideon. This was all his fault.

Leo glared at the bed where his son had died and his body had disappeared, furious. If he were mortal, he would probably have started tearing at the sheets, stripping them from the bed and tearing them up until they were nothing but rags. Or perhaps he would have left them and demanded that no one touch them, almost creating a shrine so that Chris was forever preserved on the sheets, in the room. But he wasn't mortal. He was an Elder. But he was still only human.

Angry tears streaming down his face, Leo began destroying the room, in true Elder fashion. Blue lightning bolts burst from his hands and he began lashing out, screaming in anger as he destroyed the walls, windows and furniture. The only thing left untouched was the bed.

Wallpaper turned black and the walls cracked. Windows shattered, sending glass everywhere. Furniture split, collapsing on top of itself. There was destruction everywhere and each and every part of it came from him, Leo, and that felt pretty darn good at that moment.

No one came to see him. No one tried to stop him. Paige had already seen this once and Piper was in the nursery with baby Chris and Wyatt. Phoebe had taken to avoiding Leo, not needing her empathic abilities to read his emotions. He was alone. It was better that way. Anyone he encountered was liable to become a subject of his rage and he didn't want to hurt anyone, so he continued destroying, hoping to empty out some if not all of his rage at his son's untimely and unnecessary death at Gideon's hands.

He aimed his lightning bolts at the destroyed, burnt wood of the dresser, not being able to will himself to care that he was ruining Piper's room, her clothes, her possessions. It didn't matter. None of it mattered. Nothing mattered to him except Chris and Gideon and this burning in his chest that wouldn't go away no matter what he destroyed.

Eventually, when there was nothing left to destroy, Leo fell to the ground, panting, fury still sitting in his stomach, not like a knot, like a boulder that only he could carry, only he could move. He wished that he hadn't been under a time constraint and had been able to let his anger out on Gideon, more than he had when he'd killed him. But he'd needed to shift the balance back quickly to save Piper and unborn Chris (as well as any innocents with a tendency for rule breaking and the rest of that creepily cheery world with it's clear cut, black and white sense of right and wrong) which unfortunately meant for Leo that his desire, no, not desire, his burning _need_ for revenge had taken the back seat.

Gideon deserved to suffer. He deserved to be driven mad with pain until he was begging for mercy, begging for death, the way he had planned to kill Wyatt, which would have only succeeded in turning him evil. And for the first time in his life, Leo wanted to be the one to make him suffer. But that was impossible now. Gideon was dead and gone and there was no way Leo could enact his revenge.

Unless there was. He looked up at the room around him, suddenly seeing clearly. Why waste his anger on furniture when there was a perfect target for him in the Underworld? Gideon hadn't worked alone, he'd worked with Barbas.

Barbas had been willing to sacrifice Wyatt. And Barbas, being involved with Gideon, was partly to blame for Chris's death. Until Barbas was dead, neither baby Chris nor Wyatt would be safe. And Leo needed to be the one to take Barbas out.

Anger burned in Leo's eyes as he pulled himself up, standing in the centre of the room, a quick and admittedly weak plan formed in his mind. He knew he was being emotional, something he rarely was, but this was his family GODDAMMIT! If he couldn't be emotional about his family what could he be emotional about? Barbas deserved to die and he deserved to die at Leo's hand.

Fuelled by rage, Leo orbed, thinking of his location, the Underworld. He would start his search for Barbas with some upper level demons. He began walking through the tunnels, desperately hoping that one of the demons would take him on and give him an excuse to vanquish them. After all, he would have more than enough rage for Barbas _and_ every other demon in the Underworld. Might as well let some of that anger out on the demons and lighten the load for the greater good while he was at it.

Phase Three: BARGAINING

Piper didn't leave the nursery the first few days baby Chris was home. That first day she had sat in her nursing chair for hours, clutching Chris close to her chest, shielding him from the sounds of Leo's rage and pain. Eventually, Leo stopped destroying everything in his path and Chris's soft whimpers evened out into slow breathing.

Piper rocked back and forth, sleeping Chris in her arms. Wyatt played silently with some soft blocks on the floor beside them. Her arms tightened at every slight noise, as if every sound she heard was a threat coming to steal her son from her. Again.

She stayed like that for a few days, only moving to change and feed Chris. After the first few hours, Phoebe and Paige had come and taken Wyatt away. As far as Piper knew they were looking after him. She couldn't really bring herself to think about it too much. She was far too concerned with Chris.

Rationally she knew she should be more worried about Wyatt, after all, he was the demons were after. But she hadn't lost Wyatt... She'd lost Chris and she never wanted to feel the way she had felt when Leo had confirmed what she had suspected ever again. So if she just kept Chris in her arms, he would be safe, no one would ever hurt him again.  
She knew it was foolish to believe this. After all, she couldn't hole herself up in the nursery forever. But she couldn't bring herself to leave. She couldn't bring herself to let him go.

_'If I just hold him in my arms, he'll be safe. I won't ever have to lose him. If I stay with him, if I don't let him go, I can keep him safe,'_ Piper swore to herself, rocking backwards and forwards, her eyes locked on sleeping baby Chris.

Eventually, her own exhaustion got the better of her and she found herself drifting in and out of sleep in the chair. Her dreams were plagued with her own imaginings of the way future Chris's final moments played out. When she woke for the final time, her arms were empty.

Piper shot up in her seat, cursing her exhaustion and her own weakness. Panic shot through her and she ran out of the nursery for the first time in two days.

"Chris?" she began to scream, running through the halls, tears in her eyes and worry in her stomach, "Chris?!"

She didn't know if she was screaming for baby Chris or future Chris.

"Piper?" Paige asked appearing in her doorway, "What's happened?"

"Chris?!" Piper yelled.

Sudden wails erupted through the house, coming from the direction if the nursery. The wails were easily identifiable to any mother as the sobs of a newborn who had been forcibly, prematurely woken up. Piper turned on her heel and ran to the nursery. She found Chris wriggling in his bassinet, his little nose scrunched up, his mouth wide open, his eyes shut tight. His little face was tomato red. Piper plucked him from the bassinet, holding him to her chest, sobbing tears of relief.

"Oh thank god!" she cried, "Thank god!"

"Piper..."

Piper looked at Paige, who stood in the nursery doorway, tears in her eyes.

"How did he get in his bassinet?" Piper demanded, stepping closer to Paige, "How did he move from my arms?"

"I orbed him."

"You what?!" Piper cried, keeping her voice down so as not to startle the stirring baby in her arms.

"Piper, all new parents are informed of the dangers of falling asleep with their child in their arms. You need rest and Chris needs to learn to sleep in a crib. He can't sleep in your arms for the next ten to twenty years."

"Don't you dare," Piper growled, "Don't you DARE tell me what my son needs! My son needs to be safe. How am I supposed to keep him safe if you ORB him all over the house!"

"I didn't orb him all over the house. He didn't leave the nursery," Paige replied defensively.

"I don't expect you to understand this, but I'm trying to keep my son safe, the only way I know how," Piper sneered, holding Chris tightly in her arms.

"You weren't like this with Wyatt and he had actual demons after him. I don't understand why this is different."

"It just is Paige."

"Why Piper?" Paige asked; when Piper remained silent, she continued, "Why is this different?"

"Because Wyatt didn't die!" Piper cried, lowering her voice when Chris fussed, "Chris did. I never had to worry about Wyatt as much because he's always had a forcefield. And hey, it might not be foolproof but it's something. Chris has nothing to protect him. He's defenceless. And even with all of his magic he still DIED! I won't let that happen again!"

"You think I don't understand that?" Paige cried, "I was there Piper. I watched Chris DIE. I understand better than anyone. You think I don't have the same urges you do? That I don't wanna grab Chris and wrap him in cotton wool because I never want to feel that kind of pain ever again?! But you can't Piper. You can't live in fear."

"You may think you understand but you don't. He's my son. I failed him once and I won't do it again."

"You didn't fail him. Piper, none of us could have saved him. Not without sacrificing Wyatt. And we couldn't do that to Chris anyway. He wouldn't have wanted us to give up on Wyatt. He came back from the future to save him and in saving Wyatt we saved Chris. He won't die like that in the future anymore."

"You don't think I know that?" Piper hissed, "Logically I know that. Of course I do, but I'm his mother. He was my SON! I can't help missing him and mourning him and thinking that if I just hold him in my arms, if I just keep him close to me I can keep him safe and nothing bad will ever happen to him again. If I just hold him in my arms I can stop him from dying. Again. And I know it's stupid and I know it makes no sense but I can't get the thought of Chris dying out of my mind."

"You're bargaining Piper," Paige murmured, "Albeit not in the traditional way. But then when have we ever been traditional? You're trying to swap one Chris for another; thinking that if you protect baby Chris you can protect future Chris."

"What are you rambling about?" Piper asked wearily, sinking back into the nursing chair.

"Nothing, Piper," Paige said gently, "Just that I understand. And I won't interfere again."

Piper watched Paige walk out of the nursery, cradling Chris in her tired arms. Slowly she stood back up, moving over to the bassinet. She tried to make herself bend and place baby Chris down but she couldn't make herself move.

She spent the next week in the nursery, holding Chris, only moving to nurse and change him. Her sisters bought up food and helped her eat while still holding her son, knowing now that this was a process that Piper needed to go through.

After five days, Piper made herself put Chris in his bassinet, just for a minute. The next day, she let him lie there for half an hour, hovering over him the entire time. Then it was an hour and by the end of the week, she was putting him in the bassinet to sleep. She moved the chair next to bassinet and would fall asleep, her head resting on the bassinet, her hand holding Chris's. That lasted another week and a half. Chris was almost a month old when Piper moved the nursing chair back to its place and bought a cot into the room. She slept there for two weeks, unwilling to leave Chris alone. He still hadn't left the nursery and Piper hadn't showered in weeks.

But finally, when Chris was a month and a half old, Piper put him down to sleep and left the nursery to take a much needed shower. Once she was finally showered, she went downstairs, much to her sisters surprise and spent some much needed time with Wyatt.  
It seemed to Phoebe and Paige that Piper was finally over the bargaining phase of grief.  
Of course things weren't that simple. Piper refused to leave the house with the boys or alone. She fed them all kinds of excuses; tiredness, not wanting to cause a disturbance to the boys sleep routines, trying to protect Chris from overstimulation... The list went on and on.

On the outside, Piper appeared fine, or as fine as any parent who had lost a child could be. Hell she even seemed as though she was making progress. But her sisters knew she wasn't past this _just_ yet. No, Piper still had grieving to do before she was ready to move on. So Phoebe and Paige watched Piper struggle with her grief and trying to maintain the illusion of moving on, of living, all the while continuing to bargain in her own special way. They could only hope that one day she would realise she needed to keep living her life and stop overprotecting Wyatt and Chris, especially Chris. 

Phase Four: DEPRESSION

Anger could only last so long. Leo learned that the hard way. Even when the unimaginable had happened, when you felt as though your whole world was ending and you had no control or way to fix it, your anger at either the circumstances or your own weakness, hopelessness, would eventually fade away into nothingness. And eventually Leo's anger burned out, paving the way for a pit of self hatred and depression. He wallowed in self pity, hating himself for not seeing what was happening sooner, for not being able to save Chris. He wished Chris's body hadn't disappeared, so he had had something to bury, somewhere to visit, a piece of Chris to hold onto. But the only places he had left were the back room of the club, where Chris had lived, and Piper's bedroom, where he had died. The back room of the club had been cleaned out months ago, by Chris himself when he began planning his return to the future and the bedroom was back in use by Piper.

So Leo orbed to another place; the Golden Gate Bridge, his happy place, where he had first confronted Chris about their relationship. Chris's admission of the future was a turning point in their broken father-son relationship making this place as good as any for the scene of Leo's mourning and consequential breakdown.

"I don't know if you can hear me," Leo began, "Hell I don't know what happened to your body or where you went. But I just need to talk to you Chris. I need to say goodbye."

If he had said these words when Chris had first arrived in the past, they would have been met with a surly silence or a snarky retort, possibly along the lines of "_You've been trying to get rid of me since day one, Leo, so don't pretend to be sorry that I'm leaving _now_!_"

If he had said these words after first finding out that Chris was his son, he would have been met with a look of disgust or a look of hatred as well as a snide comment like, _"We said goodbye a long time ago _Dad!_ Let's not do the rehash."_ Leo could almost hear the sarcastic tone in Chris's voice and the bitterness and sarcasm that dripped from the word '_dad_'.

But the Chris who had died, the Chris he had gotten to know, the Chris he had built a relationship with, would have looked at him, with a sad smile and let him continue.

That silence would be better than this silence. Hell, even sarcastic and bitter Chris or secretive, untrustworthy Chris was better than this silence this nothingness. Leo would even take the punching over this complete lack of response.

"Chris, I know we didn't get along in your future, for whatever reason, but when I look... When I look_ed_ at you in my present I saw a young man who is everything and more I could have ever hoped for in a son; loyal, loving, forgiving, courageous. You made me so proud to be your father. And I know I probably didn't say it in the future and I know now it's too late but Chris, buddy, I love you. I love you so much and I miss you every minute of every day."

Leo didn't know if the Chris who had died would have replied with _"I love you too Dad."_ He liked to hope he would. After all, he'd seen what he'd like to believe was love in Chris's tearful gaze in his last moments and he hoped that he had been able to connect and mend his damaged relationship with his son.

Tears fell down Leo's face, "I'm sorry Chris. I'm so, so, _so_ sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't save you even though I wanted to _so_ badly. I'm sorry I had to choose Wyatt even though you told me it was okay. I'm sorry I was such a bad father to you and that I treated you so poorly before realising you're my son. And I'm sorry that you'll never get a chance to know just how sorry I am."

Leo fell to his knees, crying the way he had when Chris died. His chest heart and he felt as though he couldn't breathe. Misery and dismay overtook him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he choked out over and over again.

It was something his future self had probably said a lot to Chris, possibly in the letters Chris had mentioned getting from his father. He knew Chris probably hated the phrase but he had no other way of apologising, of admitting his guilt in his future son's death.

"I never wanted to let you go back. And I certainly never wanted you to die. And I am _so_ sorry I couldn't protect you."

That was all Leo could choke out before his pain overwhelmed him and he lost himself to the tears. He lost track of how long he stayed on the bridge, crying, mourning the death of the son that was never truly his (although he definitely felt like his). Eventually, his eyes dried up and though his heart still ached almost unbearably, Leo felt marginally better. He orbed, landing in the almost empty nursery, in front of his son's crib.

As he had when Wyatt was a baby, after becoming an Elder, Leo gently picked baby Chris up, careful not to wake him and the sisters and sat in Piper's nursing chair, holding the son he had both gained and lost, the son he hadn't seen or held in months.

"I won't make the same mistakes this time Chris," he whispered, "Not this time. I won't neglect you again."

At that moment, Leo vowed not to let his grief affect his relationship with baby Chris. He couldn't let his son slip away from him again. So when Chris started fussing hungrily, Leo orbed downstairs, beginning to make a bottle of milk from the emergency formula Piper kept in the house.

"Shhhh," Leo whispered as Chris fussed, "It's okay buddy, I'm here. Daddy's here. I'm not leaving again."

Phase Five: ACCEPTANCE

They didn't know when or how but after some time, without even realising it, Piper and Leo accepted Chris' death. It started with little things; Piper took Chris and Wyatt out of the house more and more often; Leo stopped spending all his time in the Underworld, ceasing his revenge-quest of Barbas and pretty much any other demons he could get his hands on. There were other signs too, like how Piper and Leo began to smile at one another and converse more or how they both laughed at a joke without thinking about how Chris might have found that funny.

And then Piper realised suddenly just how long she could actually go without thinking about future Chris, about if he had suffered, if he were still here watching over the family he'd fought to protect. She stopped focusing on _that_ future and started focusing on her _own_ sons' very bright and very long futures. She stopped herself from hovering over baby Chris, which had first been a visible effort but later became easier and easier to do, going to work and demon hunting. Piper stopped considering herself as a failure of a mother if a demon even stepped foot in the house (not that any _ever_ got close to Chris).

Leo was better too. He stopped orbing to the Golden Gate Bridge to reflect and talk to Chris. He stopped crying. Eventually he was even able to step into his and Piper's room (which had since been restored by Paige and Phoebe without so much as a nasty or sarcastic word). Leo also stopped sneaking into Chris's nursery at night to check on him, which he had continued doing even after he moved back home.

Piper and Leo started doing more together; going out as a family, laughing together, going on dates. They started focusing more on demons and their respective callings, neither of which trumped their families by any means.

And suddenly one day, they both looked at each other and realised they had accepted Chris's death. That they knew it needed to occur to save the future which is what Chris would have wanted. They realised that by saving Wyatt they had saved Chris in the future and knew that they would see a version of that Chris again, probably sooner than they thought.

Without realising it they'd moved on. They'd accepted Chris's death.

They'd made it through the stages of grief.

**A/N: AGAIN, CONSTRUCTIVE CRITCISM WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. THANK YOU **


End file.
